I am not a business person. I don’t know what makes a good
business. It seems like it helps to have a good idea, great
people, the willingness to work hard, and an absolute shit-ton of
luck. Being certain about much beyond that seems, well, a bit
crazy to me.

Payne thinks a lot of the startup sages and VCs who like to
dole out advice are full of it. He thinks most of them should be
ignored because they don't help solve real problems.

What irritates him about those people?

Startup lexicons that preach a "process cult." That means
books like the "Lean Startup" novel, which talk about ways for
startups to run that should be successful. He says they were
successful in that instance — there's no guarantee that they will
be successful in the future.

Venture capitalists like to try and find patterns in
startups, but rely on their experience — not actual data. That's
led VCs to think the ideas will make sense for their future
investments.

Your startup location doesn't matter. "There are good
reasons to start a company in a particular place, or to move your
company from one place to another. 'Because everyone else has' is
not one of them," Payne says.